by Dale Mayer
“Should’ve been done a long time ago, after his stallion days were well and truly gone. He’s very old, so in that aspect, they wouldn’t bother with the surgery. Yet, it would’ve made him a lot easier to handle. I’m equipped here to perform the surgery, so I will take care of that in the next couple of days, and then he’ll be fine to be pastured with the mares, particularly given his age.”
Stan was right. Hannah watched the two men maneuvering Sir Raleigh into a stall. He blew and stomped slightly in outrage but more for show. He wasn’t rearing back, and he wasn’t kicking anybody, so he had been well trained. “He doesn’t appear to be adjusting too badly.”
“He might already have a good idea what’s happening too,” Dani replied.
Hannah winced, thinking about the glue factory. “I’m sure he’ll have a lovely life here.”
Once Sir Raleigh had settled, Stan stepped in and did a quick exam. The horse stood quiet. But by the way he stood, Hannah could see he was proud. Every inch a stallion.
“I’m surprised they would get rid of him.”
“The stallion is only good for one thing,” Dani murmured. “And if his offspring aren’t showing the promise they had hoped for, then it’s not worth even that.”
“It’s a tough life.”
Dani stepped inside the stall and held out her hand. Hannah watched from the safety of the gate. The stallion smelled Dani and then blew gently on her hand. She stroked his long nose. “You’ll be just fine here, boy. We’ll make sure you get another ten to fifteen years of good living.”
Hannah watched in amazement as the horse calmed down under the tender care of Stan and Dani. Within minutes, Sir Raleigh was led to fresh hay and water. He started to eat and drink. “When will you let him out to feed on the green grass?” Dani asked.
“It’ll be much easier to deal with him confined here,” Stan answered. “After the procedure, we will give him a day out in the pasture on his own, and then we’ll slowly introduce him to the mares.”
“There are only females in the pasture. Right?”
“That’s correct. I have only one gelding, the others are mares. But once he’s gelded and calmed down slightly, he’ll blend in.”
“Gelded?” Hannah asked.
Dani chuckled. “Stallions tend to maintain their personalities, even after being gelded. He will remain somewhat aggressive and hard to handle, and he will still think the mares are his.”
“So, a male is a male?” Hannah asked.
Stan shot her a mock look while Dani chuckled. “Exactly.”
“Dani, you have built something special here. I can’t imagine where these animals would’ve ended up without your help,” Hannah said.
“Not just the animals. Think of all the injured people upstairs.” Stan shook his head. “Even staff members who don’t work out so well in other places do better here.”
Hannah laughed. “Dani collects cast-off animals, injured patients and cranky staff.”
“I don’t collect anything,” Dani protested. “I’m just trying to help.”
“And a fine job she does too,” Denton said.
Hannah turned to see Denton in his wheelchair. His hair was wet, and although he looked tired, he also had a very happy smile on his face.
“Don’t you look like you’ve had a great day,” she said in a teasing voice.
“Oh, I did, indeed. I got in the pool for the first time today.”
“Now that makes sense. I don’t use it enough,” Hannah said.
“No time like the present,” Denton said. “Although, if you want company in the water, it won’t be me. I’m tired today. About to go up and change and head for dinner.”
The group slowly broke up as everyone returned to the main building. Hannah took the opportunity to walk with Denton to the elevator and upstairs.
“I’ll be a little bit. I still have some work to do in the office,” she confessed. “Dani had a new horse arrive, so I came down with her to see him.”
“Are you a horse-crazy girl too?”
“No.” She shook her head with a startled laugh. “I haven’t been around them at all. I find them fairly intimidating,” she confessed.
“I get that. They’re large animals. Lots of people here look after them. But I know some of the staff and the patients go down and visit with them all the time.”
“I get down to Stan’s stomping grounds to bring certain animals to integrate with the patients. Chickie and Helga are two of my favorites. But it’s part of my job, so I don’t get to linger down there.”
“And I haven’t spent much time with them at all.”
“Stop by the office. When I left, Chickie was sleeping on his bed.”
“Sure. I can stop by there first.”
Together they walked into her office, and sure enough, Chickie was curled up in a ball. As soon as they walked in, he lifted his head and gave a small yelp. She picked him up, and he snuggled close. She glanced over at Denton.
“I’m soaking wet,” he said wryly. “I need to rinse off and change, and in the meantime, it looks like Chickie could use some loving.” His smile flashed. “Give me twenty minutes, and I’ll be back. Maybe he’ll sit with me.”
Hannah sat in her chair and carefully tucked Chickie into her lap and quickly went through the rest of her work for the afternoon. In the back of her mind she wondered if maybe she’d get an invitation to have dinner with Denton too. If nothing else, for coffee before.
She gently stroked Chickie’s head. “You’re a lucky thing. You get to visit with him.” When she heard slow footsteps approaching, she looked up to see Denton arriving at the doorway. She smiled. “No wheelchair?”
“That was the easy way. I was thinking that maybe, if I could walk to dinner and then make the trip back again, I could rest in my room for the remainder of the evening. I hate to take the easy route, but at the same time, I worry about overdoing it.”
“And without the wheelchair, do you want to hold Chickie?”
He flashed her a grin and gave her a bashful look. “I was kind of hoping you’d be done for the day and could have coffee with me.”
She laughed out loud and hopped to her feet, holding Chickie gently in her arms. “And here I was hoping to have dinner with you.”
The two stared at each other, feeling that instant rapport.
“Then how about we do both, and you can tell me how you’re getting on.” He glanced around the room. “Are you done here?”
She nodded and shut down the computer. With Chickie in her arms, the two of them walked to the dining hall.
“Inside or out?”
“Outside right now. We can always find a seat closer to the food when it’s ready.”
“You sound like you’re hungry,” she teased.
“That I am.”
When they found seats in the sun, he sat down, and she delivered Chickie to him before walking to the coffee bar. She picked up a tray with two cups filled with black coffee and returned to the table.
“I couldn’t remember if you take creamer in your coffee or sugar or both.”
“Cream is good, thanks.”
Chickie looked up and sniffed the air as Hannah placed the creamer tubs and sugar packets on the table.
“It must be hard not to have everybody feed him,” Denton said, scratching the pup behind his ears.
She nodded. “Especially with Chickie. His system is very touchy. If he has anything other than his dietary food, it causes him a great deal of pain.”
She watched as Denton gently stroked Chickie’s small tan-colored body. Chickie shifted slightly to sit deeper in Denton’s lap and closed his eyes.
“Unlike a lot of dogs,” she said, “he spends a lot of time sleeping.”
“Maybe that’s best for him at this stage.” He lifted his gaze and looked at her. “So, give me an update on how your friend thing is working out.”
She winced. “Maybe good? Maybe I’m doing it for all the wrong motives, and that’s not so
good.” She shrugged, not wanting to share how wrong her motives could be related to him. He was quickly becoming someone she wanted to be so much more than a friend with, and yet she didn’t know what he wanted. What if he just wanted to be friends? How did that work? For her it wouldn’t work at all. “I want to be a little more relaxed about it.”
“Everything is negotiable. And you’re right. You can’t force it to work either.” He studied her for a long moment. “So … is there anybody who you decided to befriend?”
She winced. “Well, there is somebody I’d like to be a little friendlier with, but I don’t know how that will work out.”
He sent a sharp glance her way. “Friendlier? Or like really friendly?”
She flushed. “It’s kind of personal.”
“Personal’s what friends do,” he said. “But I didn’t realize you were sweet on anybody here.”
“I didn’t realize it either.” She stared at her coffee cup and wrinkled her nose. “But that’s the thing about opening yourself up, looking at other people as friends. It tends to open you up to other feelings at the same time.”
An awkward silence followed. She raised her gaze to look at him, wondering how he took her news. She had been deliberately vague about it.
He continued to study her intently.
She could feel her flush deepen and darkened. She raised an eyebrow. “What?”
He leaned forward. “Who?”
He watched as she settled back in her chair, shaking her head.
“Not sure I’m ready to say anything about it yet,” she confessed. She dropped her gaze instead of staring at him directly.
Why was he pushing her again? He’d been hoping he was the one she was sweet on. If she wouldn’t say anything, how the hell was he supposed to know? That was what he liked about his buds. They were all direct—they spoke up when they had something to say. And Denton never had to finesse anything nor figure out the rules of dating. But it had seemed to him that he and Hannah were working toward something that wasn’t just friendship.
“Do you consider me your friend?” she asked.
He raised an eyebrow and nodded. “Certainly, the beginning of a friendship anyway.”
“Not in the same vein as Brock and Cole of course,” she added. “I wondered how that worked.”
He settled in his seat, holding on to Chickie as he shifted. “We were already working on being friends. I want you to find somebody else to do something nice for every day.”
“No, I am,” she rushed to reassure him. “Every day I’m spending more time around people. I spent quite a bit of time with Stan and Dani today. Which was nice and unusual at the same time. But it was fun.”
He relaxed slightly. “Is it Shane?” He hadn’t meant to come right out and ask who she was sweet on, but it was disturbing and would eat at Denton until he knew for sure. He had hoped that something was between them, not that she was looking for someone else. He wondered if he should encourage her to choose him for her acts of kindness. At least then he’d know she cared. He hadn’t made any claims or presumed to be so forward as to throw his hat into the ring, so she had no idea of his feelings.
“Is it Shane what?”
“The guy you’re sweet on?”
“Oh, my goodness, no.” She leaned forward and grasped Denton’s hands. “Not at all. Shane’s a sweetheart. But we’re friends. And I like that.”
Relief settled inside him. Still Denton frowned. “Now you have me thinking about every male in the place, wondering who it is.”
She gave him an odd look, then picked up her coffee cup and took a drink. “Maybe it isn’t anything anyway. Just a passing fancy. How does one even begin to know?”
He couldn’t stop thinking about who the person could be. “Whenever they come into the room, it’s like the room lightens and brightens and becomes so much warmer and cozier. You look up to see if they are walking into the room, even though you know there’s absolutely no way they could be here because they are away. But you can’t help yourself, hoping they’ll be here.” He gave her a crooked grin. “They’re the last thing on your mind when you go to sleep, and they’re the first thing on your mind when you wake up because they’ve been in your dreams all night with you.”
Her mouth opened ever-so-slightly, her eyes going wide. “Oh my, that sounds wonderful.”
“It is,” he said, unsettled. Because only one person was always on his mind. And it was her. He watched Hannah, wondering what the hell just happened to his world. And how cruel could the world be if that was how he felt, and she had chosen somebody else.
Then Brock and Cole walked in. Denton waved at them, relieved to see this distraction from his tortuous thoughts.
She took a cue from that and stood.
“You’re not staying for dinner?” he asked. He was disappointed to see her leave, particularly when she had said she’d hoped to have dinner with him. “I thought maybe you wanted to talk about something.”
She cast a sideways glance at the men approaching. “Another time.” And she walked to the rack of dirty dishes and placed her cup with them, then came and took Chickie from him.
He watched as she made her escape from the dining room. He frowned. His buddies plunked down on chairs beside him.
“We didn’t mean to chase her away. Sorry for intruding on your private moment.”
He glanced at Brock. “I’m not sure what you intruded on.”
“What do you mean by that?” Cole asked.
Denton explained the odd conversation they’d had as he gazed from one friend to the other. “But she left. We were supposed to have dinner together, but you guys showed up, and she walked out.” He shrugged. “Not sure what to make of any of it.” First came silence at the table, and then Brock and Cole chuckled.
Denton frowned at them both. “What’s up?”
“The mysterious person she’s sweet on is you. And when you didn’t pick up on her cues, she didn’t know quite what to make of it.”
He stared at them and frowned. “What? What was I supposed to say? I asked if she was sweet on Shane.”
At that Cole laughed. “Everybody here loves Shane, but I don’t think he has anybody special.”
“But maybe that’s who she has feelings for,” Denton argued. Inside, he wondered if they were right. He tried to think back on the odd conversation as if he’d missed something, and maybe a second pass would show him what it was. “I’d like for you guys to be right, but I don’t see it.”
“We’ll find out from our ladies if Hannah’s been spending time with anyone,” Cole said. “But I don’t believe it’s anyone else but you. You have to give her the right cues and let her know where she stands, that’s all.”
“Okay.” But he wondered, “If that’s what she meant, then I’ve screwed up. Because I didn’t give her any kind of response to that.”
“Do you want to?”
Denton looked down at his broken body still on the mend. “It’s hardly the best timing.”
“I understand why you say that,” Brock said slowly, “but I think you’re wrong. I think if ever we needed to show up as the people we truly are, then today is the day for it.” Brock shrugged. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my new relationship, it’s how she wants honesty on all levels. I’m no longer the big warrior I was. I’m no longer a SEAL. But what I am is a lot more realistic for her. I’m a lot more me. My integrity is intact. My ethics, my moral code all are intact, and I’m still the warrior even today. Just another variety.”
Cole nodded. “That’s so very true. We aren’t the people we once were. But who we are now is authentic. Don’t try to be anything else, and don’t wait to be any better. Don’t wait till your body heals and you’re as good as you can be. Because there can always be setbacks. You’ll live life now with a whole different set of health issues. We can be stronger, more vibrant, able to take on the world, but that doesn’t mean when we have an issue or get set back, that we don’t want somebody who�
��ll be there for us, knowing what we were like before. You don’t want to go into a relationship looking for perfection or expecting it. It doesn’t exist. You can’t have it, and the last thing you want to do is to present yourself in that light. The reality is, this is who you are.”
Denton stared at the table. “So how do I fix this?”
The other two men shared a glance, then shrugged. “That’s up to you,” Brock said. “You’ll find a way. And on that note, are we eating dinner together?”
Denton nodded. “I got stood up, so I guess so.”
Cole patted him on the shoulder. “The food’s ready, so come on. Let’s get in line before everyone else joins in.”
Denton nodded, and with the others ahead of him, he slowly made his way to the buffet. But inside his head, he kept remembering how she had said she was hoping to have dinner with him. When his buddies came, something had changed. He had figured that, maybe afterward, he and Hannah could go for an evening swim and have coffee and dessert. He stood in the line with the guys and pulled out his phone to send her a text.
I wish you had stayed, but I’m eating dinner with the guys. Meet me for coffee and dessert at the pool later?
He held his phone tightly in his hand as he studied the food, waiting for her answer. Finally, when it came, she’d included a happy face.
Sure. One hour?
A grin whispered across his face. Yes, he typed. That would be perfect.
Brock edged toward him. “By that expression on your face, I’m guessing your love life is better?”
Denton nodded. “If it’s my love life, then it’s better. But if she’s after somebody else …” He shook his head. “It might be time to find out for certain.”
“So where will the romantic evening be?”
“I’ll tell you, but make sure you guys are going in the opposite direction,” he said. “We’re meeting by the pool for coffee and dessert.”
Brock rolled his eyes. “That pool has a lot to answer for.”
The men chuckled. Denton followed slowly as they walked along the buffet, collecting everything they could possibly want to eat—a huge delicious-looking baked ham, brown rice, and lots of vegetables. Denton was tired, and he remembered Shane’s suggestion to eat a lot of protein. With a slice of hot ham on his plate and a couple scoops of sides, Denton grabbed his cutlery and slowly made his way to the table. He would enjoy his dinner.
